Steven Palazzo

The commercial space industry will ensure that America remains a world leader in space exploration.

It should be a top priority to launch American astronauts on American rockets from America soil as soon as is safely possible.

Congress and the American people deserve to have answers to the questions posed by ASAP.

I truly believe that we can come together to address these concerns in a constructive, bipartisan way so that we can once again launch American astronauts on American rockets from American soil.

Denying information to ASAP or Congress about the Commercial Crew Program is unacceptable when the hardworking American taxpayers are footing the bill for the program, and the safety of our astronauts is on the line.

I hope that we are doing everything that we can, as Members of Congress, to provide your agency, as well as others with the resources to counter this threat.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has continued to be a thorn in the side of the United States because of their failure to halt the expansion of their nuclear program as well as the support of terrorist groups like Hamas.

Great nations do great things. Everyone in today's hearing wants to ensure that the first flag flying on the surface of Mars is planted by an American astronaut.

In the future, Orion and SLS will serve as the tip of the spear for our nation's space exploration program.

The successful test launch of Orion demonstrates that we are on the right track for sending humans back to the Moon and Mars, within our lifetimes.

I certainly hope that this will someday be possible, but right now, space exploration requires government support.

The test last week of Orion was an important milestone in the future of America's space program.

As we look to continue pushing towards Mars, we must talk honestly and realistically about these programs and what we can accomplish with them.

I want to congratulate Mr. Gerstenmaier and his entire team at NASA, as well as the teams at Lockheed Martin and United Launch Alliance for an outstanding test flight.

But, you know, when you have this trust deficit--and it was mentioned by several different members, is that we don't necessarily know if the Pentagon is making the right decisions or some of these decisions are coming from the White House.

I actually don't think that that is that much of a concern. But I do think the Guard is going to play a huge role in things like that in the future.

If we can dry up the ability to buy beans, bullets, and Band-Aids, I mean, hopefully another way to break their will to fight.

I hope that through your comments alone, that this administration and others will be honest and not glossing over the past.

Congress, I think, has been honest and saying that sequestration and placing those devastating defense cuts on top of our men and women in uniform was a mistake.

We must openly acknowledge past mistakes and learn from them because that is how we avoid repeating them.

It is my sincere hope that the Administration will stop spending time on poorly designed and executed missions such as ARM.

I continue to be concerned that the Administration is not heeding the warnings of these experts for the mission that it has designed.

The ARM mission as currently defined may pose an unacceptable cost and technical risk.

Its benefits for advancing the knowledge of asteroids and furthering planetary defense strategies are limited and not compelling.

So, you would have us believe that the entire reduction is because of the drawdown of the boots on the ground in Afghanistan and related resources.